June 19, 2025 – Board Meeting

001Oh, sorry. Welcome. I now call this regular meeting of the Goose Creek CISD board of trustees to order. The time is now 6:06 p.m. Mrs. Guy, was the meeting properly posted? It was. And do we have a quorum? We do. All right. Real quick before we get into anything else, Dr. O'Brien, I'm going to yield to you. You have a little statement you want to talk about and then I'm going to yield to uh Vice President Clim to touch on something. All right. I just wanted to uh first and foremost inform the audience we did have a fiber optics break this past week and uh we understand that some emails were not received and we wanted to let you know that they were stuck in quue and now discovered so we do have those just

002as a technical uh housekeeping point for the audience also wanted to recognize today's date as we open tonight's meeting I want to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of this day as we recognize Junth a profound day in our nation's history and a and a celebration of freedom, resilience, and the enduring pursuit of justice. Junth marks this day, June 19th. Originally in 1865, when enslaved African-Americans in Galveastston, Texas were finally informed of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. It is a powerful reminder that the path to equity and justice is ongoing and that ensuring liberty, dignity for all continues today in our classrooms, our community, and systems that we lead. As we reflect on the meaning of this day, we also honor the legacy and leadership of our

003African-American schoolboard members and leaders across our community whose voices, service, and lived experiences help shape a more inclusive and equitable future for all students. Thought it'd be appropriate to share that uh we're here tonight on this particular day as it is an expression of our core values as well. With that, I'll defer back to you, President. Thank you, Dr. Brian, for that. I've asked uh Vice President Clem to speak a little bit on one thing that brings everyone in this room together. We all have differing opinions and it takes every one of those opinions to run a school district and really serve our community. So, I've asked u Vice President Clem to kind of read over something that brings us together today and hopefully everyone in this room can agree to it. And a as

004we all come in for each meeting, we always have on the screens our mission, vision, plan, and core values. But since it's always there, it's really easy to just ignore because we're used to it being there. But if we would look at the mission statement, that's really the reason we're here. I'll just take just a moment to read it. The developing the whole child, the district develops and enhances each learner's intellectual, social, and emotional well-being. Facilitated by a highly qualified team committed to growth, community collaboration, innovation, success, and determination. and let that be the reason we're here tonight. Thank you so much, Vice President Clim, and thank you all for indulging that. Let that be our guiding light in everything we do in these meetings. Uh where we could all come together and everything we

005do is for the mission of this school district. With that, before we get to citizens participation, we do have a public hearing. Dr. O'Brien, I'll turn it over to you. Dr. Conklin, did you have opening statement? Yes, sir. Good evening. Uh President, my apologies. I'm I'm moving. I was about to do a song and dance. I'm six minutes late, but making up for it. My apologies. Dr. Conklin, if you would go ahead with opening exercises. Well, good evening, Mr. Campy. Board members, Dr. O'Brien. Uh, school's out for summer, so we don't have kids, so board members, we're doing our open exercises. Miss Sky will lead us in a prayer, followed by our pledges by Mr. Martinez. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for the opportunity to serve our students, families, and community. Grant us wisdom,

006unity, and clarity as we make decisions that impact young lives. May our discussions be guided by fairness, respect, and a shared vision for the future. Bless this meeting and all who are present. Amen. Okay. There are no acknowledgements or recognitions this evening, so I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you. Now, I will yield to Dr. O'Brien. We do have a public hearing before citizens comments. Dr. O'Brien. Our chief financial officer, Miss Bridget Clark, will be presenting tonight for the public hearing. The public hearing is exactly as it says, for the public. So, she'll be presenting tonight the 2526 proposed budget and tax rate. At the closure of her presentation, she will solicit input from any audience members who may have questions or thoughts or ideas that they'd like to contribute to this

007public hearing. Miss Clark, we'll turn it over to you. Ma'am, you've got three minutes. No. Yes, sir. Thank go. Uh, all right. Give me just a moment here. All right. So, uh, this evening, this is the grand finale of our, um, budget process and it ends with the public hearing. So, um, Dr. Bowlinger was not able to be with us this evening. It's probably a good thing because I I'm a little uh I picked up a little something. So, um it's probably good for him. He's not sitting by me right now. Um but with that, I will go ahead and get started on this public hearing. It shouldn't be a whole lot of new information under the sun, but um you know, we will we did have some activity uh since our last meeting. So,

008um, we'll talk about, uh, property values and tax rates, um, the legislative update and the legislative news, compensation update, and of course, the proposed budgets and next steps. So, we got our preliminary property values, and they are um, looking basically flat. I mean we have a little bit of increase in M and a slight decrease in INS but um you know when you're talking about 20 billion and 18 billion you know of you know 76 million on that and 33 million on uh INS is not very significant however um these are apt to change they usually do change um once the certified values come in because there's a lot of new property that may not be have been included on the role at that time also of course there are property protests going on and

009so until we know the results of those property protests, we don't have the certified value. So that continues to go um go on at our CADS. All right. Tax rates, of course, we can't set our tax rates until we get certified values, and that won't be until um of course the uh July 25th date. A uh Harris County um usually doesn't give us their certified values until the end of August. So, um, because they're such a large entity, it does take them a little bit longer. The we're expecting, um, probably slight decrease in M tax rate, although it's not reflected here because we don't have the certified values yet, and we don't have the, um, maximum compressed rates, uh, set forth by Texas Education Agency. So, right now, we're just showing a flat um uh

010year-over-year zero increase, but we we will see some slight compression with an M tax rate whenever we are ready to adopt tax rates. All right. So, um since we last met, uh House Bill 2 was signed into law by the governor on June the 4th. So, we met on June 2nd and then it wasn't signed into law until June 4th, but we are very happy that that it did get signed into law. Um it gave a pretty substantial raise to our teachers with um three to four years of experience getting 2500 um and teachers with five plus years of experience getting the $5,000 raise. Um it also had a non-teer non-administrative aotment um for raises at $45 per average daily attendant giving us just under a million dollars for that one. uh an aotment for

011basic costs which we're using to offset the insurance the health insurance costs that we've experienced that have been exorbitant over the last forever I guess but especially in the last few years. Um we got about $2.5 million for that. Um it'll certainly help. It won't offset all the cost increases but it will help. Um, also there was a safety aotment increase um from uh $10 to $14 per student and also a per campus increase from 15,000 to 37,000 which gave us about 800,000 more. Again, it's not enough to cover the cost that we had to invest in security for per campus officers as well as all the safety regulations that were handed down by Texas Education Agency like fencing and all. It had quite a laundry list of items that were unfunded mandates. So, we've

012been trying to catch up with those um expenses and being able to pay for those. So, we'll take the help on that for sure. So, um the compensation highlights incorporating House Bill 2 provisions. So, just to spell it out, um 0 to two years of exp teachers with zero to two years of experience will receive a general pay increase of the 2% or $1375 each because House Bill 2 specifically um and expressly uh included in the bill um 3 to four years of experienced teachers and five plus years of experienced teachers. Uh the three to four again they're going to three to four years of experience are going to get about a 3.8% 8% raise or $2,500 total. And then the five plus years of experience will receive anything from 6.4 to 7.6% raise or

013$5,000 total. So very substantial, wonderful raise to be able to give to our teachers. Um staff on the teacher pay scale that are not considered classroom teachers. So prior to House Bill 2, we had some some uh employees who were on the teacher pay scale who weren't actually classroom teachers. And so the recommendation from TEA and uh TASBO and other organizations are to uh place them on a separate salary scale now since they have been um you know separated by House Bill 2 and we um we have done that and we made that recommendation to TASBY in the final report and we are recommending a 3.5% raise for this group only and then all other staff will receive the 2% raise that was approved at last board meeting on the 2nd. All right. So, the

014compensation plan update. So, on the second, the board approved option one, which was to adopt the compensation plan as originally presented in May with 2% general pay increase for all because House Bill 2 had not been signed into law, right? We didn't feel comfortable, the board didn't feel comfortable moving forward with that without, you know, with the provisions of House Bill 2 without it actually being signed into law. And um as a result, the proposed budget was legally posted is being proposed this evening and must be adopted without the provisions of House Bill 2 included because of that. And we'll get into how we're going to handle that. It's not uh business as usual. This isn't uh something we're we're accustomed to doing, but this is how it has to has to play out uh

015time-wise on the action items list. So the very first thing that we'll have to do and these are the action items you'll see further down on the agenda. The very first action item is a standalone action item and that is to consider adoption of the 2526 proposed budget as posted without the provisions of House Bill 2. Um then the second action item is also a standalone action item. It's on uh the compensation plan revision. What we're going to do because we had some questions and some confusion, just the cleanest and least confusing way to handle this probably is to retract the 2% general pay increase we had for teachers with 3 to four years and five plus years um and add the $2500 and $5,000 raises from House Bill 2, respectively. Otherwise, there was confusion

016on well, are we going to get, you know, the 2% plus and and and that sort of thing. So I think the cleanest way and the least confusing way is to retract it and then replace it. Similarly, um retract the 2% raises on the uh individuals who are on the teacher salary scale who are not classroom teachers and replace with that 3.5% raise. Um and then the third action item, this one is in consent agenda. It is to consider approval of the 2526 budget amendment to include the provisions of House Bill 2. So, we're going to amend the 2526 budget that was legally posted as it had to be without House Bill 2 provisions. And then we're going to immediately after the budget is adopted and after the compensation plan is amended, we're going to

017um include the provisions of House Bill 2 in that budget amendment for 2526. So it has to go in that order for legal purposes and that will um that will clean house and make everything very very succinct and and very um very easy to explain. So what is this is the budget that we uh that does not have house bill 2 provisions. This is what we um adopted and this is what was legally posted. And you see that first column there general fund that third line from the bottom that's the $3.6 6 million deficit number that we adopted with the 2% general pay increase that was approved on in May. So, um that should look very familiar because you all saw this last time. So, that's prior to House Bill 2. And then the second

018um action item is going to be consider approval of revised 2526 compensation plan. and it's going to retract the 2% raises for teachers with read four and five plus years of experience and add the 2500 and 5,000 raises respectively to align with House Bill 2. And then we will retract that 2% for those uh employees not that are were on the teacher salary schedule but are going to be moved to their own u pay scale and uh replace that with the 3.5% raise. Now what is the bud amended budget after you approve the budget amendment? This is what it's going to look like for the 20 after the 2526 um budget is amended. So this now includes the provision of House Bill 2. It includes that extra revenue um and it also includes the extra

019extra expenses, but you see there's that third line from the bottom in that first column. Now we have a surplus of $3.7 million. And that should also look very familiar because this is what was presented last time as an estimate as to what it would look like once those provisions were put in place. All right. So that is the end of the presentation. I'll open it up for questions should you have any. If anyone has questions, please come to the microphone so it'll be caught on the recording. Um my question I'm going to be speaking later on but this is just pertaining to this correct. Uh my question is uh there's TLC's and TIC's that are u teachers also classified as teachers. So, I noticed that they're s stipulating classroom uh teachers, but they are

020the ones that teach in the teachers. How are y'all classifying them exactly on this budget? That's my I need a clarification on that. They fall into the category that I discussed here in the second bullet. um they fall into this 3.5% increase and because they're getting moved to another salary scale because based on the definition by Texas Education Agency, they are not um considered a classroom teacher of record, although they support um classroom teachers certainly and we value them. That's why we're giving those um individuals and those employees higher than the 2% general pay increase to give them some equity, but they're not they're not defined as classroom teachers as per House Bill 2. And so we we made that uh we made that compromise to to give them more than what the rest of

021the employees are getting with 2%. Okay. I read the legislation, House Bill 2, and that's not what I I read from that. Y'all must be interpreted a little bit different because when I read it, it stated all teachers, and they're classified as teachers, whether they're in the classroom or not, they are teachers. So, uh I think I'm going to have to talk to Brisco and and Maize Middleton and uh Governor Abbott because uh there's a lot of interpretation there and I think y'all are misinterpreting what they're they're stating because they are teachers and they are teachers to teach to teachers. So, uh actually they should be considered a little bit above teachers pay and a little bit more because it doesn't come up to the 3.5 doesn't come up to the 7% that the teachers

022are actually getting. So, uh right it and it's still unfolding. So, if there are some corrections or changes which there will be I mean certainly because the bill has just been signed into law in the last couple of weeks. Um, so we still are in the period of time in which the commissioner will interpret uh many of these things to deliver to school districts. But you were going to say something. So we just got back from from training and um a lot of the presentations about House Bill 2 were saying that to be considered a teacher you had to um have four you have to be actually in front of children teaching four periods of the day, four hours of the day. That's not how I read it. But like I said, I will call

023uh my senator and maybe they can get something. There's always a opening of the interpretation and like I said, I read it and I am on the legislative committee. So, I will be calling them to clarify it a little bit better. That's a great idea. We would love to be able to include these with, you know, yeah, I wish that we could give everybody that works in the district the seven and a half%. would love to at least the same raise across the board. But unfortunately, the legislators kind of tied our hands with that, right? They didn't fund and I mean, if they if they say they're included and they fund it, then we're absolutely happy, more than happy, ecstatic to do it. We would much rather not have to separate, you know, these folks

024from the teacher salary scale if we didn't have to. But, and uh those teachers are paid a little bit more since they're the ones instructing the teachers correctly. Which ones? the TLC's and the TI. Yes. Yes. Additional days as well. Stipen. Yes. Because they have to be under different kind of recommendation to be above for the teachers. Correct. Yes. Okay. That's my questions and I still going to speak on this a little bit later because u like I said I've been talking to a lot of the teachers and I know a lot of the teachers and u I don't know. I guess it would be kind of awkward for them to come and speak since uh they're teachers and uh I'm being an advocate for them. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Matthews. Back on

025the property values. Yes, sir. Um just point out to everyone if you don't mind that that preliminary value of 18 and a half billion does not include the new 140,000 homestead exemption. That is correct. That number will be compressed a great bit. It will probably go down about 1.2 billion. And then on the next page as you I just want you to reiterate because I think this is important that we've based our budget on a tax rate of 10725, but the M compression may lower that. So, there will be a slight a slight uh decrease in that M tax rate due to compression. Yes, sir. We're all looking at our crystal ball, hoping for the best. Yes, sir. He did. He did. Yes, sir. Any other questions from the audience or from our board of

026trustees? Thank you, Miss Clark. Thank you so much. [Laughter] I was laughing because she's clean off the microphone. It was legit. Thank you for that. I keep getting logged out. It keeps logging me out every time I leave it. All right, we will move on to item number four on the agenda. Citizens participation. Citizens participation is the time that the board will hear public concerns or public comments from those who have properly signed up to address the board. At regular board meetings, the board shall permit public comment regardless of whether the topic is an item on the agenda posted with notice of the meeting. General public comment is limited to no more than 30 minutes per meeting. At all other board meetings, public comment shall be limited to open session items on the agenda posted

027with notice of the meeting. Each speaker is reminded that he or she is limited in his or her presentation to a maximum of three minutes, which can be further limited or reduced by the presiding officer, and that he or she should respect confidentiality concerns and refrain from attacking the personal character of any individual student, staff member, board member in addressing concerns or comments. Pursuant to state law and board policy be illegal, the board cannot consider or take action on concerns at this meeting unless they pertain to an item on the posted agenda for this meeting. Any deliberation or decision on an item that is not posted for consideration at this meeting shall be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda of a future meeting. With that being said, we have eight

028speakers signed up to speak today. I'll call you one at a time. Miss Guy, Mrs. guy. Our secretary will keep time. If you would come to the microphone, state your name and the topic you're speaking on. First up is Brandon Terry. I'll also give you a warning when you have one minute left. Mr. Terry, if your microphone's green, you're good to go. If it's not, you need to press that little button. All right. I'm here to speak about George Crow's uh nomination for the fieldhouse at Starburst Stadium. Uh my name is Brandon Terry, a native Batonian, the son of Frank and Jean Terry, Ariel, class of 64. I'm here tonight because I love my hometown's history. The first thing I thought of when I saw a picture of the ribbon cutting of the new fieldhouse

029at Stalworth was George Crowe. So, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Baytown Sun and made a post on Russell Hammond's Baytown history site on Facebook with my intention to nominate our new fieldhouse and it should be named after George Crowe. My post received hundreds of responses. One stated, "Baytown has a gym in Mr. Crowe and would be wise to honor him." Another one said, "If you knew Mr. Crowe, you would vote for him." So, who is George Crowe? He was one of the first certified athletic trainers in the entire state of Texas. and was instrumental in establishing the early protocols. In fact, when many trainers heard you were from Baytown, they would ask, "Do you know George Crowe?" That's the respect Mr. Crow received throughout the state. He put Baytown on the

030map. Early in his career, Mr. Crow was the trainer. In 1963, when my dad, Frank Terry, was a team captain, the Ganders beat the number one ranked team in the state, Kalina Park, which ranks as one of our all-time greatest victories. Then in ' 8687 I finally made my way to Lee and Mr. Crow was still there. In the Gander season opener in 1986 at Sour Stadium we endured a 63 to nothing slacking by Lamar. One of the worst losses in our stored history. But through the highest of highs and lowest of lows, Mr. Crow was always there to patch us up and get us ready for our next challenge. He did this for 41 years and impacted generations of Batonians. His counterparts from his era have already been recognized for their service by the

031district. Principal Henry Armstrong, one minute. Coach Pete Sulttus and Coach Ron Kramer. Trainer George Crowe is the logical next in line. Growing up in Baytown, I had the privilege of knowing each of these men. They meant so much to us, and I strongly believe Mr. Crow deserves to be honored along with them. I want to close by stating George Crowe is still alive and kicking at 90 years old. He still lives in Baytown with a career this noteworthy. Let's honor this great Bayonian. Thank you, Mr. Terry. Our next speaker will be Keith Marshall. Again, state your name and the topic you'll be speaking on. Sir, thank you very much. My name is Keith Marshall. I'm here to um advocate for coach Al Dennis to be nominated for the new fieldhouse at Stalworth Stadium. I met

032Coach Dennis as an eighth grader at Highlands Junior High. Our team had won the district championship and he came out to Highlands to uh give us a trophy, but he brought something with him other than the trophy. He brought a helmet. He brought a blue had a a a silver helmet with a blue star on it and he held that up and he said, "Gentlemen, I am going to build a program." This was in 1972. I'm going to build a program that every high school in this state is going to know who Baytown Sterling is. And he had every one of us in the eighth grade on the edge of our seat. And and he did that in 1972. As y'all remember, he took a team to the state uh championship game. Howard Samson was

033a part of that team and it was a magnificent team. In 1973, when I enrolled at Sterling High School as a freshman, we went through freshman orientation in there with the the cafeteria was full of kids that wanted to be a part of Coach Dennis's program. He came in, he spoke, we got up, we went through orientation, and we started uh we started the program. I ended up being one of his quarterbacks, our quarterback, this 1976 team. He not only taught me how to be a good quarterback, but he also taught me how to be a leader, how to how to go through life and and be the kind of person that um that I needed to be. When I graduated from college, he called me and he congratulated me on my graduation from college

034and he asked me what I was going to do. And I told him I was going to be a banker. And I've been a banker for 50 years. And I follow everything this man has taught me. He once said to me one time in a private meeting, quarterback meeting. He said, "If is the biggest word in an athlete's life." He said, 'D don't go through life thinking if I would have done this, if I would have done that. And I have tried to live by that mantra is not to live with a bunch of ifs out there. So I would greatly appreciate if y'all would consider coach Al Dennis to be uh the naming of the new fieldhouse, which I understand is absolutely magnificent and it would be an honor uh to see his name

035on it. Thank you'all very much. Thank you, Mr. Marshall. Our third speaker will be WDE Hicks. Thank you. My name is Wade Hicks. I'm also here to speak on behalf of Coach Al Dennis. Uh I was a 1977 graduate of Ross Sterling High School and a member of the 7576 Sterling Rangers under Coach Al Dennis. Mark Casey pinned uh who was an a Sterling graduate of 1980. He pinned a touching nomination that uh in favor of Coach Dennis. I hopefully y'all received that letter today. Uh that letter includes a growing list of former athletes that support the nomination. Uh I'd also like to thank Carl Thes. He's kept us focused and provided lots of history and data on Coach Dennis and Goose Creek football as well. Keith Marshall and I are here tonight uh to

036speak on behalf of those on the list and hundreds more of our fellow friends and former students and athletes in favor of Coach Dennis. As I understand it, the nominating requirements according to the board policy is one an outstanding president of the United States, which I don't think that applies tonight, early pioneer of Goose Creek area and the state of Texas. That surely can apply to some of the quality nominations. And third, a living or deceased person who has attained local or national prominence in education, science, art, statesmanship, political science, or military achievement. And I'm assuming most fall under that category. I'm not sure what the in inside baseball requirements are for the board to name the new facilities, but if the name you're looking for was a Cedar Bio Bear and a Robert E.

037Lee Gander, who was a standout football and basketball player, and Mr. Robert E. Lee himself, then we hope that name is Al Dennis. If the name you're looking for was a coach at Sterling under Roland Cuddlin, Jim Hess, and then in 1972 at the age of 29 became the head coach of Ross Sterling and took that team promptly to the state championship against Odessa Per. We hope that name is Al Dennis. If the name you're looking for was a teacher in Goose Creek, a coach head of food services for three years, a principal at Horseman for four, then we hope that name is Al Dennis. He fulfilled every category in Goose Creek from student, teacher, coach, administrator. If the name you're looking for in the man has honor, integrity, humility, and character, a man who

038taught hundreds of young student athletes that our character was more important than our athleticism, that our athleticism would fade, but our character would last a lifetime. Then I hope that name is Al Dennis. If the name you're looking for is for a good Christian man. I mean, he did not quote us scripture. He did not lecture to us about becoming or being a better Christian. But a man by his everyday actions bore untold fruit. Galatians 5:22 states, "The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, perseverance, moral excellence, inherent goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control." Those were all qualities. Coach Dennis time had attributes of Dan Stalworth was a incredible had incredible writer. Time is expired. Thank you, Mr. Hicks. I'm sorry you didn't hear. I didn't hear. We want to make sure we're fair

039to everybody. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Our fourth speaker is David Isaac. Good evening, board of trustees, superintendent, and president. I'm David Isaac, and I hail from Baytown, Texas. I'm here to rise to speak in favor of naming the professional development building uh after Miss Susan Moronto that says here on this uh board here that honored you guys that the board recognizes the importance of creating a culture of mutual respect and trust among all members in the community in the education community. someone was put into the director of personnel seat in the 1980s who uh appointed many of our teachers that raised many of our kids in this community from the 80s up until today. Many of our teachers, many of our giftgivers, many of our finest educators were hired by Miss Susan Moronto when

040she was led to lead the director of primary education from the 1980s onward. When we talk about culture, first I should thank you guys. Uh should say happy Junth to you. It is a federal holiday. I do appreciate seeing Dr. O'Brien there last year. Uh and what what other day would you consider naming a building after an African-American woman who made a major cultural impact in this town? We got plenty of buildings named after some old white guys. No offense to the old white guys who spoke tonight. I liked your speech. But we got plenty of those buildings. and Miss Susan Morfontno should be one of those names considered to be named. Now I don't agree with what I call the Bettin Court doctrine. The city had its issues naming buildings after people and uh

041one of our councilman Bettin Court had the idea that we shouldn't name buildings after living individuals. I am solely against that idea. I think when it's when the time is right and it calls for it that we should give people their flowers while they are here. Miss Morfontno on her own terms after serving here and during serving here was elected to the Lee Collar School Board the first African-American woman uh elected locally here in town and on her own terms by her own will decided to lead for 40 years back in the Reagan administration. Some women couldn't even open bank accounts on their own during that time. She created the Bear 2 program a scholarship to help several students turn into teachers. She created social infrastructure. While many people build roads and bridges, Miss Susan

042Moronto built social infrastructure for our students for upward mobility in this town. Please do not forget that when you go back there and you think about some names who professionally developed individuals in this town. On this Junth, I would like for you to consider what is important to the culture of our town. Not just today, but yesterday and tomorrow. Susan Morfonto today. Susan Morontno yesterday, Susan Moronto tomorrow. I'm David Isaac. I thank you for your time. And while I got some time, you can name that building uh that other building after anybody. One of those ladies who spoke had nice shoulders. You could be a nice linebacker. We're all like Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Isaac. Speaker number five is Wyra Holland. Hello, I'm Wra Holland and I'm here to speak on Miss Holland, if

043you would pull that microphone down. Okay. Which way? I'm always confused. Just just point it to you. Mr. Isaac was very tall. Is that better? Yes, ma'am. Feel like I'm echoing. Okay. And we'll give you your full time. Okay. All right. I stand here this evening to ask you to honor a great pioneer of our school district and our town and name the new fieldhouse after the late Dr. Herbert H. Duke. Some of you may be wondering who Dr. Duke was. If Dan Stalworth's name was not on our football stadium, I feel sure there are some who would be wondering the same thing about him. Dr. Duke graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where he played football. In 1921, Dr. Duke moved to Goose Creek to teach chemistry and become the first coach

044at our high first high school which was named Goose Creek High School and it's lo and it was located where Carver Elementary stands today. for a couple of summers. He even worked in the Goose Creek oil fields to earn money to attend medical school. After teaching and coaching for a couple of years, he then enrolled at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveastston. After receiving his medical degree in 1929, he returned to Goose Creek to practice medicine. In 1930, he and he and Dr. Gordon A. Lily opened Lily Duke Hospital. Although the two-story hospital that brought thousands of Baytown Bayonians into the world and served thousands of li saves thousands of lives closed in 1966, the building still stands today overlooking town square. In 1955, Superintendent George Gentry wanted to institute a program of

045heart education in junior and senior high schools. Dr. Duke ensured that each of the schools received a large plastic and synthetic heart that illustrated the inner workings of this vital organ. From 1935 to 19 the60s, Dr. Duke was the team physician for the Roberty Lee Ganders. Not only was he their team doctor, but he was also their number one fan, counselor, and friend to all the coaches and players. His good friend, the late Fred Hartman, referred to Dr. Duke as a quote well-known saw saw bones and football fan. In a 2003 Baytown Sun article entitled athletic trainers owe a big debt to the team doctor. Retired athletic trainers George Crowe of Lee and Bill Parish of Sterling praised Dr. Duke calling him quote a legend in his time unquote. The comment went on to state

046what Dr. Duke pioneered at Lee led the way for others like doctors George Wamsley WD Jones, Robert Hill, HW Kilpatrick, L Lewis Hughes, James Sammons, Cleave Partner, PT Eckleberger, George uh Charles George, James Wamsley, James Pi, and the list keeps going on and on. Uh when Dan Stalworth was the coach at Lee, Dr. Duke was the team position. Dr. Duke and coach Stalworth were very close friends. Naming the fieldhouse after Stalworth Stadium after Dr. Herbert H. Duke would be creating a full circle for the two great gentlemen who made history both on and off the field. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Holland. Speaking number six will be Nicholas Rice. Good evening, board of trustees. Uh, my name is Nicholas Rice. I'm a Baytown resident, and I'm coming to you this evening to respectfully ask for

047your consideration for the naming of the Stalworth Stadium Fieldhouse after the late Dr. Herbert H. Duke, Senior. Three minutes is just simply not enough time to describe all of the amazing accomplishments that Dr. Duke achieved in his life. So, I will just go over some of the highlights. Dr. Dr. Duke first moved to Baytown in 1921 at the age of 22, where his first job here was teaching chemistry and coaching at the new Goose Creek High School. Dr. Duke subsequently attended medical school at the University of Texas, but he quickly found his way back to Baytown. Dr. Duke opened a small clinic in a hospital in a framed cottage at the corner of Pierce and Asheville for a few years. Subsequently, Dr. Duke and Dr. Dr. Gordon Lily opened Baytown's second hospital called Lily Duke

048Hospital, which remained open for 30 years in which its two-story building still stands today. From 1935 until the 1960s, he served as a team physician for the Roberty Lee Ganders. Dr. Duke delivered thousands of babies, many of which are still in the Baytown area today. Dr. Dr. Duke was also the president of the Baytown Rotary Club, a member of the Texas Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the East Harris County branch of the Harris County Medical Society, as well as countless other medical associations. He also organized the Touchdown Club where coaches, players, and fans had weekly lunch meetings. As a few highlights in Dr. Duke's career, in 1947, Dr. Duke saved the life of PY policeman Cleave Dickens, who had accidentally shot been shot while on a fishing trip with Dr. Duke providing emergency life-saving

049care even as being on a pleasure trip. While coaching at Goose Creek High School, he helped a young teacher, Miss Hazel Cape, who lar who later married Hugh Eckles Jr. solved the problem of truency among the players who were skipping school. Dr. Duke is part of our history and should be remembered for pioneering the way in our school district and community. Dr. Duke inspired others in our community to become the next generation of leaders, name, namely Dr. George Wamsley. As Dr. Wamsley explained, Dr. Dr. Duke interested me and encouraged me to become a doctor. From the time I was a kid in Robert E. Lee, he helped. He's a gander team physician then and now. Finally, as you consider all nominations presented to you, I ask that you please review the recent changes and historical

050precedents of the board policy CW local governing the facility naming process. All board members received a email from me last week concerning this change and I thank the two trustees for acknowledging my correspondence. The facilities names committee worked very hard and thoroughly discussed this topic and overwhelmingly voted against recommending the change that you adopted last November. I urge you to carefully consider these facts in your decision-making tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rice. Speaking number seven is Margot Matthews. She already spoke. I'm just kidding. Now, now Margot Matthews gets to speak on anything she would like to. Actually, before y'all start timing me, I submitted I kind of feel like I'm out of place because I know a lot of the naming stuff's coming on and I did submit a naming uh email for y'all

051to read and but I have the other email that I'm going to read that pertain to what the budget was a while ago, but I'm going to go ahead and read it. I know you're going to investigate. Yeah. Please start with your name and what you're speaking on and then your time will begin. Okay. Marga Matthews and I will be speaking about uh the budget. Dear board members, today I want to speak briefly about the vital roles of our teaching and learning coaches TLC's and technology and integration specialists TIS's in Goose Creek CISD specifically regarding their compensation and their impact on the roll out of the blue bonnet highquality instructional materials. First on funding and stipens. TLC's and TIS's carry responsibilities beyond the classroom, supporting teachers and driving districtwide instructional and technology initiatives. The district

052has worked to recognize that by allocating a $3,000 stipen for each row advocated for by leaders in curriculum and technology. These stipens acknowledge their expanded duties and commitment. However, the compensation clarity is needed. While a 3.5 raise is proposed, many TLC's and TIS's have noted this does not align with the 7.5% plus raises seen by classroom teachers with stipens added on top their overall pay increase still falls short in in comparison. This raises valid concerns about equity and retention for those in these critical support rows. greater transparency in how these figures are calculated is essential in moving forward. Regarding the HQIM rollout, the TLC's have led teacher coaching workshops and implementation support to ensure blue bonnet materials are used effectively. TIS's have handled the digital integration troubleshooting training and ensuring platforms run smoothly. Their collaboration

053has been key to successful adoption across campuses. In conclusion, the TLC's and TIS's are essential to our district's instructional and technology success. I ask the board to continue reviewing the compensation structure to ensure it reflects their value. These educators are driving change. Let's make sure they feel supported and recognized for it. Thank you so much. And um uh I'm going to highlight some of the legislation that I have in hand at home. And like I said, I'll be calling and whatever I get, I'll be submitting it to the board of what they say about the interpretation, how it reads because I know there were some paragraphs that came and kind of stood out. So, I'll inform y'all when I get informed. Thank y'all so much. Thank you, Miss Matthews. Our final speaker for the evening

054will be Van Duke. Good evening. My name is Van Duke. Thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of my family. Thank you to the board. I'm here to request your consideration to name the fieldhouse at Sorth Stadium in honor of my grandfather, Dr. Herbert H. Duke, Senior. It's difficult for me to speak about my grandfather because he passed away before I was old enough to appreciate what a great man he was. However, throughout my life, I've had the pleasure of hearing many stories about my grandfather. The pleasure of um hearing these stories with very vivid words and phrases which are used to describe him. Words such as serious, nice, unique, maverick, passionate, quite a character. Usually that one comes with a wink and a smile. Most of these stories are great tales of

055his hunting and fishing exploits, but occasionally I hear one about him performing a life-saving surgery or his dedication to medicine. Through the years, I've met numerous Beethonians that have come to me to tell me what a great doctor he was, what a nice person he was, and that they or their family member was born at the Lily Duke Hospital, and many other stories of who he was. We've also heard stories about his love of football and how he was a teacher and a coach before he became a doctor. Yes, before he became a doctor, he was the first coach at Goose Creek High School. He was also a teacher, a longtime volunteer coach, and served as the district's physician. The example set by my grandfather wasn't just one we admired, it's one we followed. Our

056family has always believed in the power of education, mentorship, and public service. The legacy of our family is deeply rooted in education and healthcare. My mother, Anna Ruth Duke, a former drum major at Roberty Lee High School, earned her degree in education and went on to serve as a drill team instructor. She later completed her master's degree and worked as an elementary school counselor for many years. My brother Stuart Duke devoted 31 years to teaching high school government and economics. My sister Stacy Duke was a coach and teacher in Goose Creek and a counselor in other areas for over 33 years. I have worked as a social worker with communities in schools and now own Duke Medical Equipment. Finally, our father, Dr. Herbert H. Duke Jr., served as an associate professor at the University of

057Texas in Houston and practice medicine in Baytown for over 40 years. There's so much more that could be said of what a great grand man was. Uh, naming the fieldhouse after Dr. Herbert H. Duke, Senior, is not just about honoring one man. It's about recognizing a legacy of service, of excellence, of compassion, and appreciation to this community. It would serve as a permanent reminder to students walking through those doors that greatness doesn't just come from talent, but from dedication, heart, and the will to serve others. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Mr. Duke. And that concludes citizens participation. We'll move on to item number five, approval of minutes, and we will begin with the May 6, 2025 regular board meeting minutes. Do I have a motion on this agenda item? I make

058a motion to approve. And I second. I have a motion from Miss Helen Bars and a second by Mr. Martinez. Do we have any discussion on this item? Hearing none. Uh all in favor please show by raising your hand. We have 74 the zero against it passes. Next item is the approval of minutes for the May 15, 2025 special board meeting. Move to approve. Have a motion by Mr. Martinez. Do I have a second? I'll second. I have a second by Mrs. Guy. Is there any further discussion? There being no further discussion on this item, all in favor, please signify by showing a raising of the hand. We have 740 against. The motion passes. Next item on the agenda, discussion items, superintendent report. Dr. O'Brien, I'll turn it over to you. Yes, President Campy. Tonight

059during superintendent reports, we have one presentation coming to us uh in regards to our benefits department. Dr. Dr. Helen Ellen Acres will be presenting. All right. I need technology support. I broke it. You have just a minute. Dr. Acres, if you will introduce your guest here in a moment. You had to press You had to press that button. All right. Good evening, Dr. O'Brien. President Kim Peacey and trustees, I wanted to take a few moments this evening to say thank you to you for your unwavering support through our transition to a new benefits plan last fall. Your commitment has been instrumental in helping us navigate this critical shift with stability and focus. Tonight, we just wanted to take a few moments to review the midyear performance of the plan we adopted. And I think what's

060most important to remember is that health care remains the single largest driver of benefits related expenses. The continued rise of chronic conditions, notably cancer and diabetes, and the new drugs and treatments associated with the treatment of those diseases has significantly impacted the overall cost structure for all employers with healthcare. And so my job is to strike that critical balance between maintaining those rising costs but making sure that we offer our employees comprehensive benefits plan because that is one of our number one tools in recruiting and retaining top-notch talent. um our association that we began last fall with TASBY and their cooperative um and led us to Gallagher Benefits um has been instrumental in the success of this plan. Um I have with me tonight Derek Eco. He is our broker from Gallagher and he's going

061to be presenting with me. And I just want to let you know that the customer service that we've received from Gallagher, from Bluec Cross Blue Shield, and from First Financial has been nothing less than exceptional. So, we're very pleased with that. First of all, I want to begin with just looking at a historical claims cost. Um, starting with the September of 2023, the full plan year there would have been until August of 24. And then we ran that short plan year from September to December. And as you can see from those escalating costs, that was the critical factor in helping us decide that we needed to make a transition. So additionally, when we look at your claims on a regular basis, uh we are running on a lagged basis. Obviously, it takes some time to

062get claims through. Traditionally, in a mid-year overview, we look previously at how your claims ran and what the drivers of those costs are. And so, when we look at those, that's what you're going to see in these next few slides. On the left hand side is the type of claims that are running through your plan. Inpatient hospital stays obviously going to be the most expensive. If you've ever stayed in a hospital, you know that they find themselves very expensive, right? Better than a four four or fivestar hotel. and then so on and so forth down. So, as you can see, your inpatient spin was really what was the driver of your costs last year. Um, on the right hand side, we're taking two separate time periods just to look at your short plan year versus

063the plan year prior. And the reason that we're looking at those is to make sure that we're keeping those claims honest. As you saw, there was a huge spike in those claims. We didn't know how those were uh adjudicating. We don't know where they came from. And so we had to really go back into those positions to make sure that we understood them. So as you can see your medical uh claim, your medical inpatient admissions are falling in there uh far ahead. But then you push into September to December which is a very shorter time and you're still getting a high inpatient admission. So we do see these things increasing which is causing you know a large majority of your plan spend. Additionally, if you see in the top procedures, these are things that we're

064looking at as to why your plan is running the way that you are. So, imaging and radiology is one of the things that's really pushing those high costs are definitely going to be in those MRIs, those X-rays, those type of things that are really going to push your plan spend. Uh, and then so on and so forth down. Another thing to call into question again is your inpatient uh inpatient days. The longer somebody stays in a hospital, the more it's going to cost you money. So, we're definitely looking at those things. If we can get in front of chronic conditions, then we're going to do better in those inpatient days, right? Less less sickness leads to less days and so on and so forth. So, we definitely want to establish greater you um greater opportunity

065whether that's to get in front of your PCP, whether that's to engage in one of the many programs through Blue Cross Blue Shield to make sure that we're bringing down these chronic conditions. On the right hand side, you can see the types of imaging and screening that's we're calling into question because of the 2.6 $6 million in spend. So, as you can see, they were continuing to grow. You had 300 CT scans in a in a period between September and December, but with 12 months previously to that, you had 354. So, we can see those scans really growing, which is causing part of your uh part of your spend. So, we definitely want to keep our eye on it. If we can find other programs or ways to be able to move people away from

066uh scans, that is something that we do want to do. Additionally, when we look at your top providers, this is where we're actually looking at some of your data that we currently have with Blue Cross Blue Shield versus what was uh paid through Allegiance uh through about a year's worth of data. So, the reason that we want to look at these two things is to say, hey, where was the majority of our spend in a provider setting before? And now that we've changed our plan designs, we've changed our network. What is that looking like now? Now, it is an immature contract. We only have four months of data right now through Blue Cross Blue Shield when we put that out there. But it's still a good way to juxtapose those two spendings to understand if

067it's worthwhile or not. On the left hand side, as you can see, Baytown Methodist is the highest cost spin for you all. And again, with Blue Cross Blue Shield, that has not changed. Obviously, that is a flagship right inside the community. It is not unheard of for people to want to go to Methodist, right? It's a beautiful facility. Many people feel very comfortable with that. They have great doctors, but they also charge an arm and a leg. We do understand that they are the most expensive in the area. So, we do want to create incentives for people to choose other places if they can, but Methodist is still a wonderful facility. As we can go down further, the patients emergency room, we did have a partnership with them where there was a set dollar co-pay

068and actually a free visit opportunity for individuals to go there. We have since changed that. Part of that is because the cost of an emergency room is exceedingly high. There's a reason why we needed to make that change to be a help us standardize and supplement our budget. So, as you can see, that has fallen off. Now, you're always going to get ER visits, but we want to decrease the number of ER visits that aren't necessary. We don't want somebody to go for a fever. We want them to go because they have a broken bone or because they have five or six, seven stitches that they need to get done. If you can, please get out to an urgent care. Those are the type of informations that we're teaching people on a regular basis. But

069it's incredibly important that we do to keep our plan spend running at a level perspective. Now, additionally, to help us with our plan spend, we uh also partnered uh with Amwins to provide a dependent audit. And the reason that we do that is because your uh your plan is governed by a plan document which has eligibility requirements. said eligibility requirements requires people to be full-time requires that if we are to cover somebody on the plan they have to be a true dependent to the plan or true dependent to you whether that is your actual spouse or your children. Now what we have found is that there are sometimes that people can sneak in a neighbor, sneak in a a family member and unfortunately those go unchecked and when those do those costs exceeding to rise.

070we are paying for that. But not only additionally, there is a layer of reinsurance that exists that if unfounded, and that's just say a person had a million-doll claim and they were an ineligible um an ineligible dependent, what that would mean is the plan document would not govern and cover that. So, your stop loss would no longer cover that. So, what would happen is right now we have reinsurance to cover a a a large portion of a of a claimant. If that went away or that person was ineligible, that would not stand any longer. So our insurance that covers us in those catastrophic cases would no longer cover it. So we have to protect ourselves. So we went through an entire dependent audit. This is the plan. This is the time frame of which we

071just wrapped up in June right now. And these are the results. So we did see a percentage of about 2.9% of people that were not part of this or that we needed to you deal with. Um there were 4.2% 2% of people that were not uh were incomplete or non-compliant. Um total uh we see a projected firstear savings by removing these people from the plan from about $315,000. So doing a good job to make sure that we're covering ourselves and then potential savings achieved over 5 years is about $1.2 million. So a very worthwhile endeavor. It is not easy for people to do. They have to go find their birth certificates. They have to go find their marriage certificates. And I have mine buried somewhere all the way down in my files. It's incredibly difficult

072to find, but people did it. We went out over and over and over again to make sure that people were involved in it, and it went really well. Um, and I think the results speak for themselves. Yes, we had 68 people that we found that were not eligible to be on our medical plan. Five of those were dependents who turned 26 during the audit and aged out. So, we ended up with 63 people on our medical plan that were not eligible to be there. They estimate that annually you will spend about $5,000 per dependent. So, if we take that times our 63 dependent, that's where the 315 in savings comes from. Have those 63 dependents been notified yet or are they hearing about it tonight? No, they have been notified already and they are being

073removed effective uh June 30th. Thank you. Additionally, we have gone out to a uh to a pharmacy RFP for 2025. The initial results are in this has not been brought to the board to vote. It will be brought to the board to vote at a later time. We are still through the procurement time frame, but we did want to give a you know an important update on how that is looking. Most specifically, uh we are looking at Blue Cross Blue Shields Prime formulary, which is what you are currently in. And with this updated pricing mechanism, it's looking like we're going to save about $1.4 million. Um, on top of that, so that came out from a pharmacy RFP. The reason that we wanted to do that is we needed more time to calculate the data

074after coming in as your as your consultant and to make sure that we can completely uh, you know, get an updated cost. We did move to Prime last year, but was it was on a one-year deal. So, we took it to a one-year deal to give us time and negotiating opportunity. And that negotiating opportunity is giving us more savings. Now, a quick look at how your plan is running currently for the last four months of data and we are getting May now. Um, the last four months of data you can see has run relatively the same. That orange number is runout claims. What runout claims means is that it happened or was incurred before your Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. So Allegiance is still continuing to process what we call runout claims. It happened in

075December. It happened in November and now they're getting paid. So they're adjudicating, they're running it, and they're processing the claim and paying it as is. Now, as we get further and further down the line, those numbers go down smaller and smaller and smaller because you have less incurred claims. And we are seeing that play out. Now, your blue cross claims in the first month are not that low, but we did receive a incredibly large amount of credits that were negotiated within our RFP and that gets applied here. So, you don't see the Blue Cross medical cost because it was actually it brought it down significantly with the amount of credits that we had initially. As we go on, we've seen it taper off and we see we're at a at a good stand still from

076where we are and and pushing forward well with claims. Now, current plan year contributions. This is just a reminder on what it costs for an employee and what it costs for the district per employee to have benefits. This is always a reminder. These things will always be in question when we're talking about your budget year toyear. Now, that's the reason why we bring this up. As a reminder, last year when we brought these benefits to you all, there was an agreement that we would be about 6.8 overbudget from a medical perspective. So there's a deficit and a need for $6.8 million or almost $6.9 million uh which was brought to you all. That continue that middle column is the latest estimate where we run a reforcast. So we take multiple more months of data and

077we reforcast it. It's saying about the same thing. We're about 6.8 8 to $6.9 million in deficit in 2026. And this is just to Dr. Akre's perspect uh point is that medical costs continue to inflate. They inflate at 7 to 8% on a regular basis. Your pharmacy costs inflate to about 13%. When you compound those together, we're at about 9%. So assume a 9% increase on a regular basis to operate these costs. So in 2026, by the end of 2026, we will be at an $ 8.9 million deficit of which we will need to deal with. We have discussed in multiple areas on how we are going to do those things. We will bring more opportunities for savings as we come in the next few weeks or in the next few months. The benchmarking is

078included here so that you can go back to it. I think that boards find this incredibly important when you're talking about, hey, what are our average costs versus our peer districts? And so we put those all together there. It outlines the number of schools, the number of students, the number of employees. You all probably know all of that. Then the carriers that they are with, if they are with TRS or not, and then the number of medical plans that they are offering. At the bottom is the district contributions. Now, please note, every district contribution is different. Some people offer a district contribution on a per enrolled amount. How many people have elected medical? Some people offer it on all of their full-time employees. Some districts offer a set subsidy and then they pull from the

079general fund every year. It is not always indicative of how much everybody is investing in their programs. Okay? Just like yours says 310, it does not calculate the $6.9 million that you're putting into your budget this year. and many other districts operate in that same fashion. The other items are how much employees pay whether that is for their own coverage or whether that is for family coverage. Okay, so those are a way to be able to show how you all are doing versus districtto district. In the future, the next few months you are going to hear a few opportunities. One of which will be plan design and contribution changes. We may see a small we may see an increase to contributions. We may see a a change to plan designs to help us grow with

080the looming budget. Additionally, we are looking at other ways to be able to bring down the spend. We are looking at a partnership with Beexa, which is on-site mammograms where they utilize a device that is no bigger than a mouse. And they can do that at every single facility if we choose to do that or we can do it at a few different facilities as well. They're very well priced. And if we can find and deal with early detection on breast cancer, which is an incredibly high risk for your population, um if we can find and determine it early, we're saving hundreds of thousands of dollars to those claims. We're also talking about a potential go to doctor campaign. Any way that we can get people to engage with their primary care physician. And then

081lastly, we're also considering a few other items specifically with that next level prime and potentially bringing that back, understanding that people were incredibly happy with it. a maternity program enhancement and then potentially pharmacy navigation. With that, I'll yield my time. If you have questions, we're both here to answer them. A quick question. What wasn't listed on our number of staff that participate in the program? Have that increased or decreased over the last year? It stayed about It stayed about the same. out of our 3,800 or so employees, we have about 2,000 that participate in the medical um and you know, one of the things we want to do is really continue to promote the wellness clinic because that's a tremendous benefit that we have here. Um that is free to all full-time employees whether they're

082on our medical coverage or not. And I think that's really important for some of our staff who may find it difficult to afford um health care. And then moving forward, um, we'll be back in September to give you the proposal. Uh, we'll do open enrollment in October and then which will start our new plan years starting January 1st. So, we'll be here in September with those new rates. Uh, and to show you the new plans. Yes, sir. This is Derek Eco. He is our consultant with Gallagher. I just Miss Acres, going back to the wellness clinic, does that tie into this the benefit side or is that funded completely separate? Um, it it's operated by my office um and and funded out of the general budget that is put into my budget. So, so our

083medical coverage does not it's not linked. That's totally separate. No, it's completely separate. It has nothing to do with our medical coverage. It's it's just um again it's one of those things I think that we have to do a better job of promoting because that is a benefit that I only know of one or other two other school districts that may have that and so we have to make sure our employees are are aware of it. We did uh recently just to update you um I did request HCA to change our provider at the wellness clinic. I didn't feel the provider that we had was the right person for our district because I think to be a provider at the wellness clinic, you have to immerse yourself in the district um become a part of

084it, know our employees, know them by name, um and be able to address their health needs. So, we are currently interviewing for a new provider, but we do have uh substitute providers there through the summer. Thank you for clarifying. I agree. It is a win-win. It's no cost to our employees. It It's fairly quick and it helps out tremendously on our cost for medical coverage. Are there any further questions for the panel? Uh, one question. Um, you know how they have the large portable MRIs and mamograms that come to a certain area or whatever. Are we utilizing anything of that nature? Yes, as a matter of fact, we have Rightway Imaging. We have a partnership with them and they come in every year and they go to every location that has at least 12 people

085sign up, but we also do it like here and at the ESC and they do 22 screenings. It takes 10 minutes is completely painless. Um, and our employees really appreciate that. So, we promote that pretty much. Absolutely. We we do on-site uh meetings at all of the faculty meetings at all of the campuses and at all of our auxiliary buildings as well. And we have a tremendous participation in that. Okay. And I'm I'm most excited about the BEXA program that Derek mentioned. Um this is just a new technology that would allow us to provide a mammogram on site to every single woman in this district. And I think that is tremendous because um we all know we all have a friend that has suffered breast cancer that didn't get their screening because they just didn't

086fit that time into their day. So we want to continue to find innovative programs that again will re uh attract and retain that top talent. And we talked about the promoting and advertising of the wellness center and some other things, but uh I think that's the major thing. We need to promote it and advertise a little bit better so we can have more employees come to the wellness center. I would agree with that, Mr. Samson. And Miss Acres, I want to ask you about this because I ask every year. The wellness clinic is valuable to our employees. They love it, but they have a hard time getting in uh for appointments sometimes, and I know we cut the hours back at one point, but then we opened it back up. Are we looking to expand

087that? I know there's costs on the other budget side of it, but every time an employee goes to that clinic, it's a whole lot cheaper, I'm sure, than sending them to a doctor or urgent care ER for themselves and for us as a board that has to manage this budget. Are we looking at expanding that wellness clinic this year? I would love nothing more than to put in a second provider at the wellness clinic and perhaps expand to have weekend hours as well. Um, but I I'm making sure Miss Clark isn't throwing things at the back of my head. Um, so it's just simply a funding issue. If we can find that funding in the budget, I would love nothing more. Our facility is certainly big enough um to be able to have two practitioners

088there and that would just increase the number of appointments and the hours and the days we could could offer that. Uh I'd be interested in seeing the numbers on that. If we were to expand that, how much would it offset the medical side that the costs are, you know, higher and higher? They're going up to 8.9 now uh by the end of 2026. That's a huge number. They're going up very high all the time. I'd be curious to see while it may take more funding on one side, it may reduce funding on the other side and may be a wash. But I'd be interested in that. Well, and the wellness clinic really helps us with our employees who are monitoring those chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension because they can get their um wellness checks

089there. They can have their medication maintained there. Um so it really helps and and it's convenient so it's more incentive for them to take care of themselves. That's what I'm hearing too. they could actually go on a lunch or right after work and be right back on campus. Yes. And on Tuesday, Thursdays, we expanded our hours till 7:00. So, that really helped a lot of our people who work 7:30 to 4:30, then they could actually get in. All right. Thank you. Any other questions for the panel? Thank you so much. I think I speak for this entire board up here that we appreciate your work and what you've done with the benefit side u when you come into this position. We had a uh monster on our hands that we had to deal with and

090I think you've done very well with it. So thank you. Well, thank you so much and again thank you so much for your support. I appreciate you. We thank the Gallagher for the partnership as well. Thank you. Thank both of you. All right, we'll move on to action items. Dr. O'Brien. Thank you, Mr. President. Just um sort of a followup um on before presenting the actions to you, just as a reminder as a part of Miss Clark's presentation that our budget adoption cycle or year ends June 30th and the legislative session is not formally over until the same time. Um I believe no action can be taken between now and then but um so it makes it somewhat difficult because we've had a little bit of a paradigm shift in funding from our legislators where

091it previously went to funding towards basic aotment to now specific funding which has created some of the chaos for our CFO. So, just wanted to clarify that some of the funding matters are still subject to interpretation as was pointed out by one of our speakers, but more so we're waiting on the the uh interpretation by the commissioner of education. He generally will follow up a legislative session about 60 days after the session ends. So, we may not hear the formal interpretation till September 1st. So, I just want to say I commend you on having the foresight to um follow along with the budget proposal for the last six months, but also understanding for our audience to know that that budget amendments could be forthcoming in the future once interpretations do shake out on some of

092these unknown matters. With that, we'll go to action item 7A, consideration, approval of adoption of the 2526 budget, proposed budget for the general fund, debt service fund, and the school nutrition funds. What is the favor of the board? Move to approve. I'll second. I have a motion to approve by Mr. Martinez. A second by Mrs. Guy. Is there any discussion on this item? Hearing none. All in favor by showing fast enough. Go ahead, Mr. I'd just like to point out again that we're adopting this budget looking through our crystal ball and assuming that our local funding is going to be the 132 knowing that that can be compressed further by tax compression and the uh new homestead exemption. And we're adopting this budget based on a 1.0725 tax rate. And we're committing oursel to that

093tax rate unless the state says we have to do otherwise by adopting this budget. Agreed. Any further discussion? All in favor by a show of hands. Seeing 74 and zero against. The motion carries. Dr. Brian. The next action item is 7B. Consideration approval of a revised 2526 compensation plan. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion to approve by Mr. Clem, a second by Miss Barat Tims. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor by show of hands. Seeing 74 and zero against. Motion carries. The next action item is 7 C consideration of consent agenda. Number one, memorandum of understanding interlocal agreement between Goose Creeks and Harris County for community youth services otherwise known as Kais. Number two, Communities and Schools of Baytown Memorandum of Agreement, excuse me, 2025 2026. Number three, 2425 budget

094amendments. Number four, 2526 budget amendments. Number five, renewal of commercial property, windstorm, flood, earth movement, that's a new term, mechanical breakdown, terrorism, crime, storage tank pollution, auto liability, and general liability insurance coverage for Goose Creek CISD. Number six, CSP 25.04, extend award for career and technical education, CTE equipment, supplies, and related services. Number seven, CSP 25.09 9 extended response for award fresh baked goods. Number eight, CSP 25.09 extended response award for catering services. Number nine, CSP 26.06 award fundraising items and services. Number 10, CSP 25.02 extended response award miscellaneous retail goods and services. Number 11, CSP 25.03 03 extended response award police and security equipment supplies and related services. Number 12 CSP 21.017 final extension technology equipment supplies and related services. Number 13 kids U US Inc. DBA fueling brains lease agreement extension. Uh the

095administration brings these consent agenda items to the board for their consideration and recommended approval. Thank you, Dr. Brian. Before I ask for a motion, I will ask if anyone has any items they would like to separate out for separate vote and discussion or answer any questions. And today I'll start with my left. Miss Guy, Mr. Martinez, Mr. Clim, Mr. Samson. This is too easy. Miss Bratins, Mr. I had one. It was just clarification on something. Miss Clark, I hate to bring you up because I know you're not feeling well, but it's related to items three and four, budget amendments. And I was looking at the oh, let's see, the the fund balance going from the 2024 2025 amendment. How does that relate to the fund balance when it goes over to the 2526? Because those

096numbers didn't calculate out for me at all. What we have to do for Yeah. Thank you. Welcome, Le. This is this is a bit confusing, so I'll clarify. Um, so for 2425, we have to make sure that we have um our budget by function um and not exceed the budget by function. So we have to put a cushion uh precautionary budget amendment in place for 2425 because there will be more expenditures that come through after the the budget year is closed and this is the last opportunity to amend the budget, right? Uh for 2425. Um, that being said, we have to put cushions in there and you can say even if you're 1% off, it's $2.5 million on a $250 million uh expenditure. So, you have to put in, you know, a little bit of

097a cushion. So, we don't think we'll hit that number, but we don't know where exactly it may fall. And so that's why you see the differential of like almost $5 million because we're trying to make sure we don't exceed those functions, but we don't think we'll hit those aggregate expenditures in that amount. Okay. Does that make sense? So that cushion that you're speaking of, it's not in one line. It's throughout. It's Yes, sir. Okay. Very good. And then my other question, looking at the 2425, the current one, we had an increase very high in instruction line 11, $8 million. What what what's the justification or the uh reason or cause for that? Um line 11 up top and expenditures, right? We're trying on that one. We are trying that's the largest um of our uh

098functions because of it being instruction and so um in order to make that cushion to where we don't exceed that function we have to put a little bit more in there right in other words the 24 is less because 90% of the school year has passed with the 25 26 upcoming year amenities you don't have that history to monitor that by right we're looking specifically at 2425 and we've already made two budget amendments. We went from 149 to 157 and now we're adding another eight. That's just kind of why why are we exceeding the original budget on that? Um we're just shoring up at the end um because it's just such a large function. It's it's pay more payroll related. Um and do you have something you want to add? Hello. Hello. Um, on the

099very first budget amendment that changed from the 149 to the 157, that was due to the insurance increase that we adopted uh or amended. And then the rest is just building in the uh precautionary uh with TIA payments and other payoffs this time of year that we can't project. It's Yeah, it's all payroll related. It's insurance. It's TIA. So the insurance was when we terminated the former provider and had outstanding balance with that termination carried forward and then we went with a new provider who presented tonight. Right. This was this was this district supplement to keep the premiums low for our employees. So this is where it it shows function as well. Yes. Majority of the cost the majority of it was function 11. Yes sir. Um is any of that incumbrances that are yet

100to be paid? This includes incumbrances. I mean, they may not have been paid yet, but they're accounted for here. Okay. Okay. Seeing the fund balance, how low that dropped. That caught me off guard, but it looks like we make up for it on um 2526. Uh that answers my questions. Do y'all have anything else? Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. So going back to action item 7C, consideration of consent agenda items 1 through 13 with no further discussion. What's the pleasure of the board? Second. Have a motion by Mr. Rentia and a second by Mr. Clim. Any further discussion? All in favor by a show of hands. Seeing 740 against, the motion carries. Move on to item D of the agenda. Future board agenda items, board training, board meetings. We'll start with future board

101agenda items. I have a couple for you, uh, Mr. President. Yes, sir. Uh, I mentioned earlier how the legislators have sort of paradigm shifted from um basic aotment funding to individualized funding. Similarly, the accountability system has changed uh over the last few years. And so we feel like it's necessary uh to bring before the board at the next board meeting u preliminary accountability scores and to furthermore not just the raw scores although they're preliminary but to explain the process by which they've changed over the last few years um by the actions of the commissioner of education. So that is one item that we would like to present to the board for future items. And then um the commissioner's interpretation I've already mentioned likely won't come through until September, but that's again he could come through

102with the interpretation tomorrow. We don't know, but it's likely to be somewhere in the next 60 days. Consider Yeah. Don't hold your breath on tomorrow. Consider it done. Miss Garcia, if you would add that to the agenda for next meeting. I would like to ask that we visit our CW local policy on facilities naming and perhaps work with our policy writers at TASBY to include a timeline in this process uh because I am not okay with being handed nomination packets at 3:30 before a six o'clock meeting and having to consider half a rema paper in the back room when we go back there. So there there is nothing about a timeline in here as far as u when information is delivered to the board so we have time to consider it all. Thank you Mr.

103Clen. I will say that is on the agenda for close session regarding legal counsel on that item. So we may get you answers today. If not, we could add that to the next one a little bit. Go ahead. Refer to um committee for further study on that in the future as we look at on CW local. Yes. Okay. Very good. I'll add your name to it. Any other future board agenda items? Hearing none. Item number two, board training. Four of us went to board training recently uh this past week at Tazby. It was myself, Mrs. Guy, Mrs. Bro Tims, and Mr. Clim along with Dr. O'Brien and Mr. Samson. Mr. Samson, I look Mr. Mr. Clem goes to everyone. My apologies, Mr. Samson. Mi Mr. Samson and I talk quite a bit at that. Mr.

104Samson, I apologize. Yes, Mr. Samson and not Mr. Clen, who was a statue at all of these. Everywhere I go, where's Mr. Clint? But anyway, we we went to um a lot of good trainings. Does anyone want to speak on any of them? Just a quick highlight what we learned about already did. She She sure did. Several of us went to ledge training and it spoke a lot about um what was talked about today. Okay, Miss Matthews, I'll just point out what we were told in our ledge training up there is under House Bill Two, they are classifying, they have a definition uh that applies to classroom teachers and it's defined for the specific purpose of House Bill 2. And I was trying to find it up here tonight and I couldn't do it without

105my iPad shutting down and doing other stuff. But um what they were informed us of is a classroom teacher is defined specifically uh for the raise. I see Miss Clark shaking her head. Yes. And there is definition in there. Uh but if you do find out anything different, sure, let us know. I'm going to research it myself. And I know Miss Clark has already been looking into it as well. But uh we learned a lot about the legislature. We learned about some other uh programs and such that we're very interested in bringing back to the board to consider for uh future uh maybe uh bringing it here at Goose Creek. U a lot of good training. A lot of good training that's done is a great uh session. Sorry I couldn't make it. Some of

106us work for lab but we do some of us do fortunate for Fortunately I All right, moving on to board meetings. We're back on a regular board meeting schedule. All right, the next board meeting will be on July 14th. Regular board meeting six o'clock here, same place, same time. And then the following one will be August 4th uh for another regular board meeting July 14. All right. At this time I should either pick either paper or electronic and not go back and forth. All right. At this time, the board will recess into close session. The board will now recess into close session pursuant to one or more of the following sections of the Texas Government Code. sections 551071, 072, 073, 074, 075, 076, 082, 083, 084, 087, and 089. Make sure I didn't miss a

107second. No action will be taken while the board is in close session. The time is now 7:38. The board will now reconvene in open session. The time is now 9:36 p.m. No action was taken while the board was in close session. All right, Dr. O'Brien, we'll move on to item G, consideration of personnel. Yes, Mr. President, we have administration brings before the board for consideration this evening uh approval of elections. I'll move to approve. I have a motion by Mrs. Guy, a second by Mr. Ria. Any discussion? All in favor by show of hands. I see 74 zero against. Motion carries. And next we have up uh accept resignations, retirements, and administrative reassignments as presented. Move to approve. Second. Have a motion to approve by Miss Barat Tims and a second by Mr. Rentia. Any

108discussion? All in favor? Signify by a show of hands. I see 740 against. Motion passes. Administration brings before the board this evening uh a few administrative elections. The first being, excuse me, you can have that water. Excuse me. The first being career and technical education specialist Andres Torres. What's the pleasure of the board? Move to approve. Second. Have a motion by Mr. Clem and a second by Mrs. Barat Tims. Any discussion? All in favor? Please signify by a show of hands. I see 740 against. Passes. Next is Dakota Pearson as counselor at Cedar Bio Junior School. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion by Mrs. Barat Tims and a second by Mr. Renteria. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none. All in favor? Show of hands. I see 740 against. Motion passes. I think

109There was an intentional void there. So, next up is educational diagnostician Maritza Puit. So, move. I'll second. I have a motion by Mr. Ria and a second by Mrs. Guy. Any discussion on this item? All in favor, please signify by show of hands. 740 against. Motion passes. Back to you, Mr. President. All right, we'll move on to letter H. Uh, Mr. President, I move that the board amend the superintendent's contract and approve the related agreement as discussed in executive session. I have a motion by Mr. Martinez and a second by Miss Helen Tins. Any discussion on this item? All in favor? Show of hands. Motion passes. Can we go on to the other two first? Uh, we'll move on to letter I, Dr. O'Brien. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Clinton. On on item I, I would

110like to make a motion that we postpone to a future agenda and uh to give all board members fair review of all nominations submitted by the previously established deadline. Mr. Clen, will you amend your motion to uh make that specific to the Stalworth Stadium Fieldhouse? Oh, yes. Well, I said to item I, but that's the renaming of the Stalworth Fieldhouse. Thank you. So I have a motion by Mr. Clem and a second by Mr. Renteria to repeat that one more time if you would to postpone to a future agenda so that all board members have a fair time period to review all the nominations submitted by the previously established deadline. Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? All in favor? Show of hands. Seeing 740 against. Motion

111passes. Letter J, Mr. Clint concerning Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Let's go back and I'm sorry. I thought I saw it wrong. So, let's do the vote all over again one more time. All in favor? Show of hands? Any opposed? Any abstains? Okay. So, I have 540 against, two abstensions, Mr. Samson and Miss Bratz. Thank you for that. And I apologize for that. Mr. Clim, letter J. Concerning the naming of the professional development and event center, I make a motion that we postpone to a future agenda since uh so that all board members present have a fair review of all nominations submitted by the previously established deadline. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Clim and a second by Mr. Ria. Any discussion on this item hearing? None. All in favor, show

112of hands. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Seeing 54, zero against and two abstensions, Mr. Samson and Miss Barat Tims. Motion passes with no further. Oh, I'm sorry. Item H. I was Thank you so much. At this time, I'd like to yield back to Dr. O'Brien to comment on item H. Mr. President, board of trustees, and our audience, um, want to announce tonight my intentions to retire at the end of the fall semester. And I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation for your confidence in me as a board, my executive team for the support you've shown me throughout our tenure together, and for the community in general. Um, it's hard to explain uh when you arrive somewhere at a new location, which I did 12 years ago. Uh, the feeling of home,

113but it's what it felt like the moment I stepped onto the property and with every encounter I had with each individual, employee, citizen, student. Uh, I felt like I had arrived at home, my final destination for my employment, my career. And I've been blessed to serve this community for the last 12 years. And um after consulting with my family and consideration of our future together, uh I've made this very tough decision and I want to uh extend my gratitude to you for accepting my retirement uh proposal for the end of sep I mean the end of December. So um generally I just want to say thank you to this community uh for allowing us to work hard together. Uh this board for those of you who don't know was nominated as a Texas honor board

114just a few years ago but it's because of them becoming um uh coalescing and buying into the same common vision of developing the whole child and um that's allowed us to do many wonderful things over the last decade and I'm grateful appreciative to uh each and every one of you and uh our community as well and with that I'll yield back to you Mr. President. Thank you Dr. Brian. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Brian. And be on behalf of the board, we thank you for your service. Um, Goose Creek looks the way it does today because of the vision you brought to Goose Creek. Um, and I for one believe Goose Creek's uh looks a lot better now than it did before you come. Uh, I thank you for that. I think this team

115of seven plus 18 really thanks you for that and the people that stand behind you and we look forward to working with you six more months. Uh and we wish you God speed moving forward and the best. Anyone else have any comments you'd like to share? I'll open it up. I just want to congratulate uh Randy on controlling his emotions. Now you you're not supposed to tell people what happens in the bag, right? I didn't say nothing. I just congrat any other comments hearing none. We are adjourned. 9:44. Yay. Yeah.